ABOUT
As Lewis Baltz wrote in an interview he conducted with himself at the age of 27, a photograph—a print—is a flat figure with five sides: the four edges and the surface, that is, the area where we see the content of the photograph. Although this statement may seem logical, it has a very strong revelatory impact: we need to experience it, to see it. We cannot photograph what we do not see, but we can observe anything at any time, without seeking a particular or decisive moment. Although, according to Anaxagoras, it is precisely through the visible that we access the invisible...
Marta Tonelli (Trento, 1990) graduated from the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio in 2017, studying under Mario Botta. Photography first entered her practice as a tool for documenting design, and gradually evolved into an autonomous form of research and production. During her studies, she worked with Pezo von Ellrichshausen in Concepción, Chile, and with Made in, Geneva.
Her photographs have appeared in A+U (Tokyo), Pig Quarterly – Family Issue (Milan), and LIVING (Ediciones Casapoli, Chile), a catalogue for the 18th Chilean Architecture Biennale. In 2018, she enrolled in the IUAV Master’s in Photography, where she developed her thesis under Stefano Graziani. She later worked as research assistant to Nina Rappaport, architecture historian and Publications Director at Yale School of Architecture.
She is drawn to the production of books and printed matter. Among her latest publications: Paolo Nestler, Ein Hauch Italien in der deutschen Nachkriegsarchitektur (Detail Editions, 2024); Master in Photography / Viaggio in Italia – four zines and two posters (Viaindustriae, 2024); Several attempts to photograph the lunar eclipse of July 27, 2018 (self-published, 2025).
From 2021 to 2024, she served as scientific director of the IUAV Master in Photography in Venice. In 2023, 2024, and 2025 she taught with the School of Public Architecture at Michael Graves College, Kean University (New Jersey, USA). In Spring 2025, she held her first photographic workshop at IUAV with Alessandra Spranzi and Valentina Merz.
Marta works as a freelance photographer, producing collaborative projects and visual research for architects, artists, and institutions. Her practice, both individual and collective, focuses on architecture, urbanism, and landscape. She lives and works in Italy.